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DIY Kitchen Chalkboard

When we built the cabinet around the refrigerator it not only gave the area a nice built-in look but it also left us with a giant blank canvas on the adjacent wall. Honestly, from the time we drew up the layout of our new kitchen, I had it set in my mind what that blank space would be. We DIYed a floor to ceiling chalkboard wall with a painted calendar in our first house and I have been dying to have some chalkboard back in my life. Insert, our new chalkboard wall

We started by priming the area with a few coats of Rust-Oleum’s magnetic primer so the chalkboard would double as a magnet board. I know as the girls get older they will be loving this space to chalk on and play with their magnetic letters. Speaking of, how cute are these stainless steel letters from Pottery Barn? Must have.

We followed with three coats of Valspar’s Chalkboard Paint in a basic black and she was ready for chalking. Well, almost. You know how we love our built-ins, so we trimmed it all out with a few pieces of door casing to give it a more finished look. Super easy, but really made all the difference.

Rather than painting on a permanent calendar this go-round, we opted to just draw one instead. The painted squares were great but we liked the idea of have a more open-end design so we could switch the layout up as we like. AKA – Jess is fickle and can’t commit to a permanently placed calendar.

And just when I thought I was done pimping out our chalkboard I realized the lighting.. er lack there-of. I never thought I would say that our kitchen could possibly need one more source of light. After installing new recessed lighting, under-cabs, and pendants galore I thought we had called it D.O.N.E. But how adorable is this picture light?

We found this light on Amazon that was battery operated (no drilling into pretty walls or running wires), equipped with LED lighting, AND came with a remote. Um, yes please. The brass finish? No, thank you. A little oil rubbed bronze spray paint from Rust-Oleum and we are looking mighty fine. Gosh, I love that stuff. Thanks for the intro J&S

The warm light it casts at night has to be the most charming addition to our new house so far.

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12 thoughts on “DIY Kitchen Chalkboard”

This looks so great and I love that you used the magnetic paint and then covered it with the chalkboard paint. I really wanted to do that with mine, but limited funds resulted in us only using chalkboard paint. We currently have 2 small sections of walls painted in the stuff and I just finished painting a large calendar in our office. Maybe I went a tad extreme, but we love our giant calendar!

Jessie, your kitchen is beautiful! We do have one question regarding your DIY chalkboard -Did you paint the cupboard surface directly, and then just frame the area that you painted, or did you use a separate surface and frame altogether that you then hung up? We are considering doing one for our kitchen! Thank You!

I love your subway tile and am planning to do it in our kitchen. We also have navy counter tops and white cabinets. Two questions, did you use bullnose tiles at the ends or no? Also wondering if the home depot tiles you linked to the exact ones you used or similar?
LOVE your blog, thanks for sharing!

Hi! Quick question. I have read a lot of reviews about how sometimes the chalkboard paint cancels out the magnetic paint. Have you had any problems with the magnets not staying on? I am wanting to do this to the back of my girls’ bedroom door.

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